The Parents

The Parents is an English play by Pieter Fourie (1940-2021)

The original text

Written in 1966, it was his first attempt at a serious drama after Tjaka, and was written in English because of the gay theme, since he felt Afrikaans theatregoers were not ready to accept such a play yet. Niel le Roux has called it the first South African drama written about gay issues. It was never published.

Translations and adaptations

In 1984 he reworked it in Afrikaans as Beeld van 'n Seun ("Image of a boy") for performance at the ATKV Kamustoneel.

Performance history in South Africa

1980: Performed by the People's Space, directed by Henry Goodman, with Gabrielle Lomberg, Paul Malherbe and Sean Taylor.

Sources

Nico Luwes 2010. Pieter Fourie (1940-) se bydrae as Afrikaanse dramaturg en kunsbestuurder: 1965-2010. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Bloemfontein: University of the Free State, pp.147, [1]

Photocopy of the programme for the English production at The People's Space (), held in the PARC research collection at the Africa Open Institute, Stellenbosch.

Mooi Maria theatre programme, 1981.

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